Ecostore recently met social and environmental standards to achieve B Corporation Certification for its Australasian operations.

The company creates household, home and body care products at its Toitū carbonzero certified factory in New Zealand and the certification now includes its business operations across Australasia, becoming one of the first few household brands with this accreditation in Australia.

The B Corp certification, administered by Standards Analysts at the non-profit B Lab, took ecostore over two years to achieve.

Ecostore Australia’s General Manager Steve Messina says now more than ever, ecostore sees the need to do even more, especially in the face of critical events such as the pandemic and the ever-increasing impact of climate change.

“The process to achieve this independent certification was long, rigorous and challenging. It required us to look at the way we do business and ensure we act in the most responsible way that benefits our environment, our consumers, our workers, other key stakeholders and the community as a whole. By being certified by B Corporation, when somebody picks up one of our products, they can be confident that they’ve made the most socially and environmentally responsible choice.”

This accreditation represents the highest independent standard that organisations like ecostore can undertake to demonstrate to customers, consumers and partners alike that ecostore does all it can to make the world a better place.

“By achieving B Corp certification, not only does the planet benefit, but ecostore will be more resilient and future-proofed. The ethical, environmental and better for you trends have continued to grow in recent years which is fantastic – we need more organisations to drive this agenda. However, it’s important that consumers can trust that the brands that they buy meet the highest ethical and sustainability standards and feel good about that choice. We believe this accreditation will help set us apart from other organisations that are also active in this space.”

“Having gotten the fundamentals right, we are keen to grow the Australasian business. The last 18 months have been especially strong for ecostore – despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to grow the Australian business. There have been channels that were negatively impacted by lockdown and the reduction in foot-traffic.

“However, we’ve offset this through other channels that have benefited from lockdown, mainly grocery and online retailers. The trend toward consumption of eco-friendly and ‘better for you’ solutions isn’t going away so we’re confident to see this continue.”

“We saw a significant spike in demand when Covid-19 hit in early 2020 and 2021 has continued to cycle that strong growth from last year, YTD by an estimated 12 per cent. The team is working hard to optimise our plans and spread the brand’s positive message of delivering highly efficacious eco-friendly products to as many consumers as we can.

“As a result, we’re always working to secure more listings in new retail channels, launch meaningful innovation and communicate what we stand for through marketing messaging. We’ve got some exciting stuff coming up in these areas so stay tuned.”

B Lab Australia & New Zealand CEO, Andrew Davies says they are thrilled to welcome ecostore as a Certified B Corporation.

“Today, ecostore joins the fast-growing community of Certified B Corporations in Aotearoa. We congratulate the ecostore team on living its purpose and continually inspiring others to set the bar high. To become a B Corp, ecostore had to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. Seeing more household brands like ecostore make this commitment a positive sign that purpose-driven business has entered mainstream.

“By supporting B Corps, people are supporting organisations that are actively working to change the culture of business and our economy. They are making big investments to reduce inequality, design a healthier environment, and create more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose. It’s up to each of us to think about our daily choices and how we can choose businesses that have made these commitments.”

Messina said the company’s three key sustainability priorities in Australia are:

1. To reduce the carbon footprint of their operations and increase the use of renewables and offsets- ecostore has set a total company Emissions Reduction Plan for which includes ecostore’s Australasian operations
2. To empower Australia’s circular economy- ecostore continues to recognise the plastic waste problem, developing solutions like innovating and designing plastic out of its products with the trialling of refill stations, and the recent launch of its plastic-free haircare bars. Where there are no plastic-free solutions, ecostore seeks to use the most sustainable options – a mix of Sugar plastic- a renewable plastic that captures CO2 as it grows and locally sourced recycled plastic.
3. To enhance sustainability by making a public commitment to work towards ambitious targets of 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable by 2023, 100 per cent of ecostores bottles made from renewable or recycled content by 2025 and move from single-use to reuse by selling more bulk packs (via refill stations and consumer purchase ) over five years – all of this by signing up to A Line in the Sand, the New Zealand plastic Packaging Declaration and the ANZPAC Plastic Pact.

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